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Kiatoc Siege of the Hemera System
The arrival of the Kiatoc to the Hemera system during the Age of Pillaging in 84,781 BI marked the end of the Areiotis species. The Kiatoc found the Areiotis when they discovered an anomaly in their analysis of Hemera's transit photometry; it was later believed that the Kiatoc had unknowingly discerned the location of the orbital solar array built by the Areiotis to terraform the third planet in the solar system. First Contact The Areiotis were only made aware of the Kiatoc once their armada entered the solar system. The Kiatoc dismantled the orbital array, jeopardizing the climate regulation of the third planet, and crippling the energy production capability of the Areiotis in the inner solar system. As the climatic conditions on the surface of the third world undoubtedly worsened over the next few months, many Areiotis would have fled the planet via wormholes until the planet was no longer habitable and all settlements were abandoned. Realizing diplomacy with the Kiatoc was impossible, the Areiotis retaliated on the Kiatoc one month after their assault on the array. The government of Areiotis authorized a counter-attack on the Kiatoc, seeding wormholes within bioships to place bombs on the inside of the spacecraft. However, use of this tactic was only authorized in reaction to the Kiatoc bioships responsible for the assault on the orbital array, and not on any bioships that could not be confirmed in the siege of the third world or on the space stations between the Areios and the third world. Furthermore, the Nested Councils did not approve of a declaration of war, which required unanimous consent from all delegates, but only approved a limited police action to prevent the Kiatoc from gaining further territory in the conflict. Areiotis Strategy The main defensive strategy employed by the Areiotis was to establish a minefield of orbiting satellites designed to intercept and destroy anything that drifted into the space surrounding Areios. The Areiotis launched a dense network of probes around the planet and expanded that network beyond Areios to cover all of the territory still under Areiotis control. If a Kiatoc bioship strayed too close to a probe, the probe would send a message to nearby probes to swarm and overwhelm the bioship until it was destroyed. Believing that the Kiatoc would cease their hostilities if the Areiotis' defenses were too great to surmount, the Areiotis did not press their attack on the Kiatoc. The Kiatoc, unable to reach the surface of the planet without facing heavy flak from the Areiotis defenses, began their assault on the parent star, Hemera. Using magnetic confinement to corral the plasma that made up Hemera into a smaller volume, the Kiatoc were able to push the mass of the star into a more condensed configuration, simulating the end of the lifetime for a k-type star. This destabilized the star and artificially accelerated its path towards a red giant. Kiatoc Counter-Strategy The Kiatoc offensive on the star left the planet assaulted with gamma ray bursts, depleting the ozone layer and in the process creating a thick haze of nitrogen dioxide to block out the visible light from Hemera. As temperatures plummeted, the Areiotis dug bunkers into the planet's crust to shield themselves from the dangerous rays and to draw heat and electricity from the geothermal energy of the planet. In the ensuing months after the gamma ray assault, estimates from Sarnam archeological sites suggest that hundreds of millions Areiotis unable to find shelter underground died. The Kiatoc would periodically break through the defenses and bombard the planet's surface in hopes of striking an underground dwelling, with little success for months. The Kiatoc still continued to press their magnetic confinement on Hemera until finally it triggered the stars' ascent from main sequence star to the red-giant. The star rapidly began to expand beyond the radius of Hemera before the assault and soon swallowed the inner three most planets of the system as well as disabled much of the defensive network surrounding the planets. Oceans on Areios that had been nearly frozen completely solid soon unthawed and the evaporated into the atmosphere. The planet became too inhospitable even in the subterranean dwellings and the surviving Areiotis were forced to evacuate to the barrens of the fifth planet from Hemera. Aftermath The Kiatoc pressed their advantage by dismantling the remaining defensive network around the fifth planet and extensively bombarding the planets' surface for days on end. Their resources exhausted from the mass exodus to the fifth planet, the remaining Areiotis had a difficult time re-establishing underground bunkers on the fifth world with the constant barrage coming from the Kiatoc. A delegation of the Areiotis offered a cease-fire, but the plea was ultimately denied by the Kiatoc. The Kiatoc continued their assault on the planet until much of the silicate mineral on the surface was vaporized into the atmosphere where it rained down as glass. Some Areiotis attempted to use their network of traversable wormholes to flee the inner solar system entirely, but were relentlessly followed by the Kiatoc, who were able to move faster-than-light through the solar system and intercept the Areiotis near instantaneously once found. Ultimately, every Areiotis party that fled the solar system were annihilated in deep space. This conflict marks the end of the Areiotis civilization, although the genetic information of the race lives on in the space probes sent out by the Areiotis to colonize the galaxy. The Sarnam were the first race to discover the Areiotis home system following the Kiatoc invasion, having confronted Areiotis space probes seeking to terraform two Sarnam-dominated worlds. Tracing the probes' trajectory back to the Hemera system, the Sarnam discovered the remnants of the Areiotis civilization and study the technology left behind to reconstruct Areiotis life.